Trouble in Turn2

To borrow a quote from Rerun, “What’s Happening?” In what is essentially an off week in NASCAR’s world, the answer is not much. Potential free agents no doubt used the week to visit other teams on their “Tell Me I’m Pretty 2008” tours (diecasts coming soon). Struggling teams hit the test track-again. And all of the PR people apparently either took vacations, the fax machine at the AP newsdesk is broken or there is just nothing happening. Maybe it’s all three. So what other news, notes and thoughts could I scrounge up for a Friday morning?

• Tony Stewart won the Nationwide race at Darlington last Friday, his first NASCAR win at the track. It was also his fourth Nationwide win this year. Check out his post-race audio.

• This is the last off-week until mid July. That means this week is a midterm exam of sorts. With less time during the weeks to test or improve their cars, whatever teams have in their arsenal is what they will take to the fight for the next two months.

• Brian Vickers’ #83 team won the Pit Crew challenge. Considering Red Bull Racing is the only organization in NASCAR to employ full time pit crew teams, it shouldn’t be a surprise. Fair play to them.

• Don’t expect the winner of the All-Star Race to have any advantage in the Coca-Cola 600. The only two drivers to win both races since 1994 are Jimmie Johnson (2003) and Jeff Gordon (2007). It makes sense. One is an 80 lap sprint race where the other is a 400 lap endurance race. Comparing the two is about as accurate as comparing Bristol to the Brickyard. My pick for the All-Star Race? My heart says Dale Jarrett, but my head says Jeff Gordon.

• I haven’t been a fan or viewer of any All-Star game for a long time. The games are never a reflection of the actual sport, people play at 75% speed, and they are usually more about celebrities and hype than actual substance. And then there’s the Pro Bowl. As for NASCAR’s version, I view it as a free Saturday night and always pass (that and the fact it’s on Speed means it won’t be available in my house anyway). For a great guide to the All-Star race, Rev’ Jim has a great breakdown of the participants.

• Go and make a difference, Rock the Vote. I voted for Boris Said. Four More Years! Four More Years!

Off the Beaten Path

Last week I was jokingly(I think) admonished for my lack of non-NASCAR content, and that’s true, there is more than NASCAR in all of our worlds. So I thought I’d try something new this week and expand. So here’s a few morsels of what else is going on in my world.

I watched Lars and the Real Girl earlier this week and it was a really good movie. Watching the preview the inclination is to get hung up on the fact that the main character, Lars, is “dating” a blowup, sex doll. But that sells the movie far short, there’s actually no sexual content. It’s a strange premise, but the movie is actually about family relationships, community and working through struggles. It’s smart, Ryan Gossling is really talented and funny (he improvises many of his lines) and the characters are all excellent. There isn’t an antagonist in the movie, just a family trying to figure things out. I definitely recommend it, especially if you enjoy slightly quirky movies with good characters that are both funny,and emotional.

Have a good weekend and enjoy the race. I’ll be spending the time dodging the mid 90 degree weather in Portland. [shaking fist] Curse you Al Gore and your global warming!

Dale Jarrett’s Final Race

One of the classiest and most successful Cup drivers of the last 20 years will hang up the firesuit on Sunday (that is, until one of the three MWR cars falls hopelessly outside the top 35). Michael Waltrip Racing owes a great deal to Jarrett for where the company is today. It would be nice to believe Jarrett could have a storybook ending and challenge for the large cardboard check, but NASCAR racing rarely bows to Disney endings.

An Emerging Driver Will win the Open

The last three years the undercard race has been won by a driver on the verge of a breakout. IN 2005 Brian Vickers Mike Bliss on his way to his first win in a Cup car. He finally won a points race in 2006 (in eerily similar fashion). In 2006 Scott Riggs won the Open, which he followed up by winning the pole for the Coca-Cola 600 and also enjoyed his strongest Cup season. Last year Martin Truex Jr set up a hot summer streak by storming to an Open win. He went on to win at Dover, score top 3’s in four of six races and make the Chase.

Whether it’s a sibling rivalry or revisiting an old skirmish, the All-Star race is the perfect platform for getting something off your chest. In 2004 after Kurt Busch took out teammate Greg Biffle, plus about eight other cars when he gave bumpdrafting a try on a 1.5 mile track. In 2005 Tony Stewart was at the heart of a multi-car wreck, but Joe Nemechek used the opportunity to get into Kevin Harvick’s face while Stewart evaded criticism. Nemechek was apparently still upset at Harvick for inciting a large melee during the Gatorade Duels at Daytona that February (Note to competitors: Front Row Joe has a long memory, don’t cross him). 2006 Stewart was again involved in a wreck, this time with Matt Kenseth that had some residual tones from their tangle in the Daytona 500 from earlier in 2006. Last year Kurt and Kyle Busch collided, sparking a mild spat amongst the brothers. Said the elder Kurt Busch, “I’m not gonna be eating any Kellogg’s for a while.”

Dale Earnhardt Jr is far classier than most of his fans (at least the obnoxiously vocal ones), but if he wanted to settle any scores (hypothetical, of course), he could pick a worse race than an exhibition event. Like you weren’t thinking the same thing.

For what it’s worth, I have Greg Biffle as the winner and Ryan Newman and/or Juan Pablo Montoya involved in quasi-fisticuffs (I love it when I can use the quasi-fisticuffs tag).

Even if you don’t know who Luke Poland is, you’ve probably seen his footprint in the NASCAR blogging galaxy. He is the creator of the Thunder Lounge which hosts several of the top NASCAR blogs. And in his choice free time he also voices his strong opinions in his writing too.

How long have you blogged? I’ve been blogging in one form or another since 97/98. Whether it was what was originally termed as a weblog, or eventually spawning into what is now considered a blog. Of course it hasn’t always been about NASCAR, but in terms of writing and/or collecting that’s where I kicked it off at. In regards to NASCAR I’ve been on the web since 2004 with Thunder Lounge. It was brought up to a full blog in 2005.

Why do you blog? Or what made you start blogging? Honestly there were several reasons. Some are personal, but overall I just wanted to share my insight and perspective with anyone who would listen. At the time there were few truly good blogs out there talking about NASCAR, and most of the “chatter” on the forums that were around then seemed to lack focus and true understanding of how things really are. They were all more conspiracy and lunacy than anything, and it really left little doubt as to why at times NASCAR fans are singled out and stereotyped. From being so far out in left field, not well written, or what have you it really looked bad on the fans as a whole.

As time progressed with version 1 of Thunder Lounge, I just got tired of the few fans out there giving the majority of us a bad rap. So I reincarnated Thunder Lounge into a more traditional blog and let the big dog eat.

Not only do you blog, but you also do a lot of work behind the scenes. Explain how the Thunder Lounge community works. I definitely work my tail off behind the curtains to ensure our site and services are always available and on par. Overall, Thunder Lounge is made up of four distinct parts. Naturally you have exclusive content from Thunder Lounge, and also our events at the track. However we’ve expanded recently to allow readers to sign up and start their own blog for free. They get their own domain (username.thunderlounge.com), can select their own theme for their site, and run their own blog without having to worry about installation, upgrades, hosting, compatibility, or any of the other headaches of typically running their own blog. Another cool aspect is that it doesn’t necessarily have to be a blog. They could start their own fan site, and create as many pages and/or posts about their driver as they want. It is truly an unlimited potential in terms of creating their own pit box on the web. They can upload their own pictures, videos, or audio clips, and share them with the world. And we’re adding new features all the time.

Finally, our fourth aspect is our featured sites. Some of the top NASCAR bloggers have entrusted their content and sites to Thunder Lounge, and have hopped on in our community. While these folks are still a part of our community, they also have a few extras along with it. They have use of their own domain name, they get more upload space, themes, plugins, and other goodies as well. For now this service is on an invite-only basis, and not just anyone can signup for it. However we do have plans over the next several months to bring some of these features to normal users as an upgrade to their existing free service. Whether it’s just a domain, a custom theme, or whatever, we’re going to have a lot of additional options so that bloggers can customize their own Thunder Lounge experience.

We’re also working on some other really, really cool things as well. I’ll have to leave it at that as a teaser for now, but you’ll know when it hits.

Where do you blog from? That’s one of those questions I consider as an “open door”. The “educated derriere” in me wants to say from my beloved Mac, made by the good folks at Apple, running OS X (Leopard, for the record). However, the best way I can answer this is “from the heart”. When I write something, whether it is a full article/post or a comment, it’s always straight from my heart. Right down in the guts. I refuse to tow any “lines” like some mainstream sources, and whatever it is that’s on my mind is coming out. Like it or not, at the time I write it that’s what is honestly in my soul.

How long have you been a NASCAR fan? I’ve been in love with the sport since I was little. Being a Tarheel born and bred isn’t a bad thing. I can remember my Dad taking me to some of the tracks as a kid. He worked for Pepsi, and would frequently be onsite at different tracks handling various things. One of my most fond memories from back then was sitting on the pit wall at Rockingham, watching the people walk by. It’s been a long road since then, but here we are.

What do you enjoy about your blog and the NASCAR blogging community? I enjoy the opportunity to write and share my thoughts, and to put some honest, heartfelt content out there. If someone reads and enjoys it, that’s the icing on the cake.

I also really enjoy the interaction with fans from all over. You won’t find better people out there than those that are involved with NASCAR.

Is there anything you don’t enjoy about blogging, or the NASCAR online community? That’s a tough one. I would have to say that at times there’s some additional pressure from blogging, and when time constraints come into play I hate it when I go long stretches without writing a word. Like right now for example. My personal schedule has been so swamped that I haven’t written anything since Texas. Not that I haven’t had it in me, just my time for the Lounge has been significantly strained. At that point, I’ve had to prioritize everything that needs done with it, and unfortunately writing has been a little lower on the list than I would like.

Another thing that I dislike are some of the views out there. Not that I don’t respect them, but at times I wonder what planet some of the folks are on. Whether it’s NASCAR fixes races, to some other out of this world comment, the common sense factor is definitely missing. It’s these types of comments that people who aren’t familiar with the sport pick up on, and causes them to stereotype NASCAR and its fans. I’m all for free speech, so don’t get me wrong, but it pains me to think that some people really are that out of touch to think some of the crazy things they do.

One final thought on this, and one thing that pretty much ticks me off, is when someone from some PR company comes and gets a blog at Thunder Lounge. They are there for one purpose, and one purpose only. That purpose is to garner free advertising for their client. From my point of view it’s an insult to me, to our community and to our readers. It says in my mind, “Well, you’re not good enough for our advertising dollars so we’re going to take advantage of you for free.” That just ticks me off to no end. While you can’t necessarily blame the actual people being represented, like they really know what their PR folks are doing every second, somewhere it has to stop. I don’t mind folks blogging and participating that have their own main site. That’s fine by me. But when someone is there to put up one or two posts about their main site or promotion, don’t participate, and never come back, I have issues with it. Needless to say, those blogs are removed really quick.

How much time per day do you spend blogging? Typically I spend at least two hours a day with it. As of late, I’ve had to take those two hours and use them for other things involved with Thunder Lounge. Hopefully things are going to start settling down soon to where I can move those back to writing, and still keep up.

Do you have a favorite driver? Sure I do. Although I have and wear lots of swag from various drivers. I do try to keep my personal cheers out of Thunder Lounge though, as I want to keep my writings on neutral ground. I really try to make sure the reader knows that when I write something that it isn’t because I’m a fan of whoever, and I’m writing because that’s what I honestly think from neutral ground. I will note that my main driver is not amongst those with Chase eligibility, but there’s hope.

There are very few drivers I truly dislike, and would rather see laps down to the field. For the record though, while those few I wouldn’t mind seeing out of contention, I never want to see anyone hurt. It’s nothing personal, any they may be the greatest person in the world, but they’ve come off on my bad side for one reason or another. None of which are currently full-time in the Cup Series, though.

Is there one thing that was key to your blog’s success?
I honestly don’t feel that there is any one thing that can have a finger put on it. There have been so many things and people that have helped out along the way that one person or action can’t be singled out. Whether it’s Marc over at Full Throttle, Charlie and Steve over On Pit Row, or one of the countless other people out there that have helped out in one way or another. The list to thank is so long, but we truly appreciate and thank every one of them.

Name something cool that has come as a result of your blog. I would have to say the coolest thing is the people I’ve met and interacted with. Whether it’s meeting some crazy Sailor that’s shacked up in the Philippines now, or other really great people involved with the sport in one way or another, it’s the people that really make the difference.

Do you have any strange or funny stories about your blog (funny or outrageous comments or emails from people, etc.)? Sure, and some are really out there. I’ll get emails from people wanting a job at Hendrick or Roush for example, or messages like, “You tell Matt Kenseth that next time Flippy comes at him, to take him out.” Then I also get a lot of “promotional” requests as well. Like a free DVD for blogging about it, or what have you. Typically I try to keep the endorsements out of it for things like that. If I like something, I’ll tell the readers about it, but not simply because you’ll give me one for free. Now if it were a free truck, or a Mac (and it better be a Pro with a 30″ ACD), then I might have to reconsider [laughing].

If you could change one thing about NASCAR what would it be? Public perception of the sport and its fans. While it’s slowly changing, there are still a lot of people out there that just don’t “get it”. All they see are left turns, left turns, left turns. I guess it’s much easier to mock what we don’t understand than it is to check it out. Maybe it stems from the fear that if they do, they’ll like it.

Elevators and Imitators

Eleven races into the season is almost one third of the way home. Some teams are exceeding expectations while others are underachieving. That’s obvious enough. While the points show one picture, the driver ratings can reveal some differences. A driver with a high driver rating shows

Carl Edwards is 4th in driver rating but sits in 7th place in the standings. Obviously without the 100 point penalty Edwards would be 4th in points. Jeff Gordon is 10th in points but owns the 7th best driver rating. A mechanical failure at Daytona and a nasty crash at Las Vegas erased otherwise strong runs at these tracks. It highlights how damaging engine failures and bad finishes can be to a driver’s points. Outperforming your points total is a good sign for the rest of the summer. I fully expect both Edwards and Gordon to climb higher in the standings and score more top 5’s.

Jeff Burton is second in the points but 8th in driver rating. It’s pretty clear that Burton’s great start is due more to compiling points and avoiding trouble than it is having fast, dominant cars. Avoiding trouble is obviously a testament to Burton’s skill, but it’s harder to sustain than simply running in the top five every week. Every driver will lose an engine, get caught up in a wreck or get a flat tire at the wrong time. Making your own luck by having top five cars every week is a lot more reliable than trying to outlast everyone and sneaking into the top ten or top five.

Elevators: Drivers with the biggest positive differences between points and driver rating
Casey Mears +6
Elliott Sadler +5
Dave Blaney +5
Matt Kenseth +4

Imitators: Drivers with the biggest negative differences between points and driver rating
David Gilliland -7
Clint Bowyer -6
Jeff Burton -6
Bobby Labonte -5
Travis Kvapil -4

The numbers give a decent snapshot of who is running well compared to finishing well. Maybe over or underachieving is the wrong word. Drivers deserve credit for passing as many cars as they can, with whatever method they can. The only point of these numbers is to get a glimpse of which drivers are capable of a strong summer or who might be ripe for a tumble.

Things can obviously change. The CoT is far from perfected, so there is a great opportunity for teams to find new advantages. Burton and RCR could suddenly find something in a test that pushes their cars closer to the front. Or maybe, in the copycat world of NASCAR, everyone might simply catch up to Gibbs and Roush and even the playing field. Younger drivers will likely gain more confidence and experience which could lead to better results. An older driver might get a new crew chief that rejuvenates a team. A team that suffers from bad luck suddenly feels the need to change personnel, resulting in even worse performances. There are tons of variables that could change the numbers.

So who do you think could climb the ladder or go down the chute this summer?

As far as Saturday night’s race, Kyle Busch won, he’s a great driver and will win more races this year and in the future. He slapped the wall multiple times and still won, it was impressive, but he is not Wild Thing. Ricky Vaughn, Mitch Williams, The Troggs, even Tone Loc all rank higher than Kyle Busch concerning rights to the “Wild Thing” moniker. Now let’s move on and talk about something that hasn’t been beaten to death in the last few weeks.

The race itself wasn’t very thrilling. Tires meant very little and track position was everything. On lap 250 Denny Hamlin and Martin Truex Jr surrendered 1st and 2nd to pit for tires, while the cars from 3rd to 10th stayed out. Normally at Darlington a strong car with fresh tires would make its way back to the front rather quickly, but Hamlin and Truex spent the next 50 laps stuck in traffic at the end of the top ten. Darlington was obviously still treacherous, but without the steep dropoff in tires, the race was a little stale. It was the fastest race in Darlington history, speedwise and was almost 30 minutes quicker than the 2007 race, but boy did it feel long. I taped the race and despite fast forwarding through all the commercials, it still felt really long. Maybe it was because nothing exciting happened. I fear for my attention span in two weeks.

Thoughts

• A few weeks ago, I wondered if there were two drivers you would want to watch battle for the lead in a tight race, than Greg Biffle and Kyle Busch. Considering the fireworks Biffle and Busch presented on Saturday night, my answer stands. The save Biffle made when Busch bumped him in a turn was incredible. It’s a shame Biffle had mechanical problems because he was the only other driver that had something for Busch, and you knew if he was around at the end it would have been a great fight.

• While top ten stalwarts like Tony Stewart, Greg Biffle, Jimmie Johnson and Kevin Harvick had trouble, the door was opened for some other drivers to enjoy good runs. David Ragan finished 5th for his second top five in three races. He also moved up to 12th in the standings. Travis Kvapil had another strong race (what does a team have to do to get a sponsor for crying out loud?), spending almost 300 laps in the top 15 before finishing 8th. One of the happiest teams on Saturday night was the #22 team. Dave Blaney climbed as high as 2nd before finishing 9th. The finish also pushes the team past Sam Hornish Jr for the crucial 35th spot in owner points.
  

  “This is a brand new car, and it was really good all weekend. They kept getting it better and better all night. That last run, we kind of faltered for some reason. But not bad, man. That is run that this team needed.”

• No rookie finished better than 28th and were at least 4 laps down. Too Tough to Tame indeed.

• Elliott Sadler handled his incident with Tony Stewart the right way. He publicly, and immediately accepted all the blame. If there is anything else to sort out, he and Stewart can iron it out in private. In the heat of the moment, that’s the wise and classy thing to do. Too often drivers would prefer to point fingers or shirk their responsibility on national television.

• Nice to see both Bill Elliott and Sterling Marlin back in Cup cars, especially at Darlington. The two have seven combined wins at Darlington. Elliott’s 30th place finish was the best showing for the Wood Brothers in 2008. Marlin drove for the injured Dario Franchitti in the #40 car, which has now come full circle. Marlin and David Stremme, both let go in previous years by Chip Ganassi have both subbed for Franchitti in recent weeks.

Next up is Exhibition Weekend, I mean All-Star weekend. Boogity, Boogity, Boogity boys, let’s go wreckin’.

For more racing insight, news and opinion be sure to check out Racing Nation. Tell ‘em Mike sent you (they’ll probably squint and ask, “Mike, who?”, but it’s still worth viewing.

In the last few years the energy drink market has exploded. The industry had three billion dollars in sales in 2005. With large marketing budgets and a young target audience, it made sense for the drink companies to gravitate towards NASCAR. Five different brands support six cars as either associate or primary sponsors at the Cup level. So what’s the big deal? Has anyone actually tried some of these drinks? I decided to find out so I retreated to the Trouble in Turn 2 laboratory for some official taste tests.

First a few thoughts about the drinks. Almost all of the drinks came in 16 oz cans or bottles despite an 8 oz recommended serving size. How many people will truly drink only half a can? That means while each can has twice as many nutrients, it also has double the sugar, and caffeine than what is truly advised. Most also warned against pregnant women drinking them. If you need to have that warning, how healthy can it be for a non-pregnant person?

All of the drinks boast the ingredient Taurine. I have no idea what taurine is, (I thought it was a former Florida Gators point guard). I have no idea what Taurine is good for, and apparently since there is no recommended daily intake, the FDA doesn’t know either. My greater concern is that it looks a lot like another word associated with yellow liquids. That fact was apparently lost on drink companies peddling yellow beverages. Go on, drink up boys.

The Drink (break)Down

• Amp

  Who they sponsor: Dale Earnhardt Jr.

  Desired Effect: Based on the commercials, my desired effect was the temporary power to trade blows with a gorilla, carry a camel or at least look cool.

  TasteAmp was not as sweet as No Fear, but had more flavor than Vitamin Water. Considering the competition, the taste approached tolerable.

  What really happened: I drank the can at 5:00 and had trouble sleeping at night. I also found no large, jungle animals to beat and/or carry for great distances. Since I tried Amp in my home on a Saturday afternoon, no one in the house thought I was cool.

• Red Bull

  Who they sponsor: Brian Vickers, AJ Allmendinger (Mike Skinner or the next big thing)

  Fun Fact: After further research, Taurine comes from bull bile, which apparently Dietrich Maeteschitz

  Taste: It tasted slightly better than Sobe No Fear. Only 8 ounces, but I still had trouble drinking the whole thing.

  Desired effect: The sudden ability to do extreme sports or at the very minimum for wings to begin sprouting from my back.

  Actual effect: No wings, although I did have the desire to suddenly go clubbing at 8:00 in the morning.

• Vitamin Water:

  Who they sponsor: Carl Edwards

  Fun Fact:They feature cutesy flavors including Dragonfruit and Pomegranate.

  Desired effect: Either obtain Kasey Kahne’s boyish good looks or Carl Edwards’ rock hard abs.

  Taste: Pedialyte, or like a watered-down melted popsicle. I couldn’t tell you what Dragonfruit tastes like.

  What really happened: I drank it after a soccer game and actually felt it helped me recover quickly. No sign of my abs, though. It was similar to Gatorade plus some extra stuff.

• Sobe No Fear

  Who they sponsor: Boris Said

  Fun Fact: The Sugar-free can reads, “We didn’t remove the sugar, it got scared and ran away.” Whoa, tough guys.

  Taste: The experience went like this-Sip number one, this isn’t too bad. Sip number two through forty, liquids are not supposed to taste like this. I can’t even remember the exact taste because the sweetness was so overpowering. It was like my mouth was perfectly coated with sugar the way flouride does at the dentist (note:only the coating effect was similar and I apologize to the ADA for including “dentist” and “perfectly coated with sugar” in the same sentence).

  Desired effect: The ability to run into brick walls without trepidation or anxiety. I was also hoping that I would like and thus buy more cases, so Said could run more races.

  What really happened: Evidently there’s a reason Boris doesn’t run more races. The taste is terrible. I took a few sips and things were going really well, but when I got halfway through the can it began to rain. Kind of a parallel to a typical qualifying day for the #60 team. It also felt like syrup was collecting in my mouth and I couldn’t finish the can. Sorry Boris, I really tried to support you.

• Monster

  Who they sponsor: Robby Gordon

  Fun Fact: Each can has 100% of your daily recommended ogre fiber and 75% of your daily werewolf sweat (Note: Fun Fact may not really be a fact, or fun).

  Desired effect: The energy to be daring, risky and maybe a little reckless. I previously had the desire to race across the sahara, but you know, Al-Qaeda and all.

  Taste: I have run out of adjectives by this point. We’ll lump it with Amp and Red Bull on the ease of drinking scale (another bad sign if you have to have a “swallowability” rating).

  What really happened: Confirmed my theory that I don’t like energy drinks.

Verdict: When I was in middle school, the cool thing to do at sleepovers was drink a lot of Jolt soda because of the ridiculously high sugar and caffeine count. Almost 20 years later it doesn’t seem like anything has changed. Pass the water please.

In most years Darlington is one of the most baffling tracks to figure out. Teams and drivers struggle with a good setup and by the time they figure it out, their tires are already worn out. The simple reason is that Darlington was such a unique track. The way the surface ate up tires made it extremely challenging and there wasn’t really an apt comparison found on the Cup circuit. This year will feature a new racing surface for the first time in 13 years. The egg-shaped track is still unique and plenty challenging, but the race will be less about tire wear. The rapid tire wear usually separated the top drivers from the top engineers. Now that factor is probably eliminated from the equation. The good news is that the race still promises to be one of the best of the season.

What Happened Last Year

For the second straight week rain moved the race to Sunday afternoon. This caused several overheating issues for teams. Clint Bowyer won the pole, but it was quickly apparent that Denny Hamlin was the class of the field. He lead 179 laps but a bad pit stop cost him not only the lead but any track position edge he previously owned. That opened up the door for Jimmie Johnson and Jeff Gordon to emerge. Gordon’s car began to steam and kick water out of the hood under cautions. After most of the leaders pitted on the final caution, Gordon stayed out in order to keep his engine from killing. The move paid off as he was able to hold off Johnson to win his seventh Darlington race.

Notes

• Johnny Mantz won the 1950 inaugural Southern 500 thanks to tire strategy. Most of the hares blew through their tires while Mantz played the tortoise and steadily made his way to the finish line. An incredible 75 cars took the green flag, while 25 others went home due to the top 75 owner’s points rule (note: Top 75 rule may not be true).

• Of all active drivers with Darlington wins, only Jeff Burton, Greg Biffle, Mark Martin and Sterling Marlin have not won a Cup championship. The other active winners are Jeff Gordon, Bill Elliott, Dale Jarrett, Jimmie Johnson and Bobby Labonte.

• Jeremy Mayfield has led the most laps(321) among active drivers without winning. Donnie Allison led an incredible 878 without finding Darlington’s victory lane, the most among all drivers.

• Anyone want to venture a guess on the number of times the announcers mention Darlington Stripe? I would say a number twice as many as the number of cars with actual stripes. Don’t get me wrong, I love the fact that the track is so challenging it’s almost impossible to avoid contact with the wall, but the incessant jabbering about said stripes gets a little annoying.

Champs, Chumps and Sleepers

• Champ Bet against Jeff Gordon at Darlington at your own peril. 7 wins, 15 top 5’s in 27 starts and three straight top 2 finishes.

• Chump It might be the only time all year where I feel comfortable choosing Tony Stewart as a chump. For whatever reason Stewart has not found success at Darlington.

• Sleeper It’s easy to pick Mark Martin every week in this category, but that’s not much of a sleeper, now is it? Matt Kenseth is hardly a sleeper either, but his 2008 struggles mean he sits 21st in the points. A nice run this Saturday would fix his Sleeper status.

My Fearless Winner Prediction

Due to some bad luck in past years Carl Edwards isn’t known for his prowess at Darlington, but he has a number of things going for him. His car control is excellent and Edwards and Roush-Fenway Racing have obviously jumped to an early advantage on speedways. He scored a top five in his first Darlington race back in 2004 and followed it up with a top ten in 2005. Rocks knocked his oil belt off and killed the motor in 2006, although he was running in the top five at the time. Then last year he led 33 laps before he was caught speeding on pit road. He battled back for a top ten, but again finished below where he deserved.

If you have never read The Spotter, you are missing out on John Newsom’s great insight and wicked wit. As a news reporter, John also has a unique perspective on blogging, journalism and where the media is headed. And of course, he’s funny.

How long have you blogged?
Let’s see … I started blogging in Feb. 2005, shortly after I became assistant sports editor at the News & Record. It’s 2008 now, so that’s, what, three years?

Why do you blog? Or what made you start blogging?
Self-preservation, mostly. At the time, the N&R was hopping on the blog train, and I didn’t want to miss it, and the Sports editor wanted me to do one. I knew a bit about racin’, and Greensboro is in NASCAR’s best (or second-best, depending on how you count it) TV market. Three years ago there weren’t many NASCAR blogs. The Diecast Dude and the Scottish Racer were about the only two out there, and I figured I had some great untapped niche. But then thatsracin.com unleased its pack of blogs about a week before The Spotter went live, so there went that plan.

I probably could have given it up when I moved back to the newsroom (I’m now the online news reporter) in January because I was really burned out on blogging toward the end of last year. But it was a new year and a new start, and I couldn’t give up completely on making fun of Fat Tony and various hapless drivers. Might as well do it on company time.

How long have you been a NASCAR fan?
I was vaguely aware of racing when I was a kid. I grew up in Richmond, and I remember one time I went to the old Richmond Fairgrounds with my friend Dan Peck and his dad. (There used to be a Peck Iron and Metals sign on I-95 coming into Richmond, on the south side of town. That was Dan’s dad’s family business.) I pretty much forgot about from racin’ when I lived in NYC and Texas, but I really got into it when I moved to N.C. in 1995. So I’d say I’ve really been a fan for about a decade or so. In other words, I’m a complete NASCAR Noob.

You work for a newspaper and have a blog. What is your take on blogging compared to traditional journalism?
The Buzz Bissinger-Will Leitch fracas has consumed a lot of virtual ink over the last week. And because I’m a fair-minded journalist with a foot in both worlds, I see where they’re both coming from. (I’m going to confine what follows to Sports, though the same pretty much goes for News blogs vs. news reporters.)

Fact of the matter is, print and blogs are both journalism. Blogs and traditional sports writing are a lot more alike than people seem to think. They both deal in facts and opinion. They both use the written word. The blog guys love to trash the MSM and the dead tree media or the buggy whip makers or whatever you want to call newspapers today. But print journalists are the ones out there doing much of the original reporting. They’re the ones talking to the coaches and the players and the agents and doing a lot of the heavy lifting on the reporting end. They also still have big platforms. The daily papers aren’t as powerful as they once were, but they still have a lot of readers and reach and more than a fair bit of influence. A lot of people care what Ed Hardin writes, for instance, and the N&R gets praise or grief (grief, mostly) for which stories make the front of the section and who gets their name in the paper.

But the newspaper guys unfairly slam blogs as some sort of bastard love child of gossip and slander. Blogs are more than just a looser, more fun form of writing. They’re also a new publishing platform, cheap and easy for anyone who has a computer and a way to put words on the virtual page. Blogs are essentially columns without a set length or regular publication date. You have to remember that newspaper columnists have plum jobs. They’ve paid their dues from preps to college to pros. Most columnists have a lot of clips in the bag before they get their column, and you have to pry it out of their cold dead hands. Bloggers haven’t paid their dues in that same way, and that bothers a lot of journalists.

There are a lot of funny and interesting bloggers out there, and my Google reader is full of them. But there are a lot of awful ones, too. Just like newspaper columnists.

While I’m on the topic, Buzz Bissinger is a wonderful journalist. “Friday Night Lights” is a tremendous book. But he acted liked a complete horse’s ass on Bob Costas’ show. He acted like every cliche of Old Media. If you’re going to rip someone — and there’s plenty about Deadspin and other blogs you can hate on — at least do some research first.

What do you enjoy about your blog and the NASCAR blogging community?
Most of what I write now involves tragedy — I write a lot of briefs about people who are shot or stabbed or robbed — and the word “police” is in just about every story I produce. The blog lets me write about something different and in a different format.

Another difference between blogs and newspapers has to deal with style and tone. Newspapers use a fairly formal format — everything has to be sourced, there are certain style conventions, news stories take a hard lead and features take a soft lead, etc. etc. In the blog, I can write pretty much whatever the hell I want. I also can use the word “hell” without having the editors meet it to death over the course of an afternoon. Hell. Hell. Hell. Man, that feels good.

As for the blogging community, I’ve gotten to e-know some folks. I actually met one — Bram Hume of Backstretch Motorsports is also from Greensboro. He’s a big, funny guy who knows a ton about racing.

Is there anything you don’t enjoy about blogging, or the NASCAR online community?
All they ever write about is NASCAR, NASCAR, NASCAR. Just for once write about something else, mmkay?

Humor is a big part of your blog. Is it hard to convey humor through writing?

You say I’m funny. You mean funny like I’m a clown, I amuse you? I make you laugh, I’m here to amuse you? What do you mean funny, funny how? How am I funny?

“From the Marbles” is pretty funny. Black Flagged Online (aka The Onion of NASCAR bloggage) is very fresh and smart. Full disclosure: I went to William and Mary with Jay Busbee, one of the “From the Marbles” bloggers. J.D. Gibbs is another W&M guy. We rule NASCAR. Take that, UVa.

How much time per day do you spend blogging?
Maybe two or three hours per week. I used to do a lot more when I was back in Sports and was working with Dustin Long, our racing writer and blogger. But I don’t follow racing as closely, so I’m not as up on the day-to-day as I was. As I mentioned earlier, I was really burned out on blogging at the end of last season. I went with the three-times-a-week Five Laps format this year just to keep the writing load manageable. I don’t want to hate what I do.

Do you have a favorite driver?
Juuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuunior!!!!!

My least favorite should be pretty obvious. *cough* Shrub *cough*. I also admire these drivers for different reasons: Denny Hamlin (also from Richmond), Kevin Harvick (who’s driving the repainted No. 3), Tony Stewart (who can drive anything) and Juan Pablo Montoya (because black cars look completely cool, and because he, too can drive anything on four wheels. If Tony Stewart were Colombian, he’d be Montoya.)

Which races do you attend during the season?
None. I went to the spring race at Richmond a few years back and had a blast, and I covered the one and only Busch race at Martinsville a couple of years ago before it was NAFTA’d north to Canada. (That’s the first thing from Martinsville that hasn’t been boxed up and shipped south.) But I’m the cheapest bastard alive, and I’m not much on crowds. Now that Digger’s at the track, there’s no reason to leave the couch.

Is there one thing that was key to your blog’s success?
My blog’s a success? Where did you hear that? The fact that you peddle such untrue rumors must mean you’re a blogger.

Name something cool that has come as a result of your blog.
A couple of years ago my wife got me a JINX T-shirt that says “Nobody reads my blog.” That made me laugh. Then I cried into my new shirt because it was true. Did you know the salt in tears can really help break in a new T-shirt?

Do you have any strange or funny stories about your blog (funny or outrageous comments or emails from people, etc.)?
In one of the first comments on my first-ever post, a guy ripped me for driving a Volvo and for never having been to a race. I got to school him pretty good.

But for the most part, I’ve been pretty surprised at how smart and funny my commenters have been. Take a peek at the comments at the thatsracin.com blogs, and you’ll be convinced that the English language had gone there to die. At the Letters to the Editor blog at the N&R, spelling, grammar and logical thought all are curled together in a corner, whimpering. I never thought The Spotter would be more civil than anything our Op-Ed folks did, but it is.

What is something your readers wouldn’t otherwise know about you or your blog?
I play a level 70 dwarf hunter on World of Warcraft. Alliance FTW.

A few notes and happenings for the early week.

• The Cup teams “traveled” to Lowe’s for a test session. Nothing too exciting on the speed charts, but one little note did catch my eye. Nationwide prospect and Dale Earnhardt Jr protege Brad Keselowski test-drove the #70 Haas-CNC car. The connections are obvious, with Hendrick Motorsports supporting both JR Motorsports and Haas-CNC. With Haas-CNC using a “Raise Your Hand If You can Drive this Week” rotation, could we see Keselowski make a handful of Cup starts this year? He’s not ready for a full time Cup ride, especially a high profile one at HMS, but Haas-CNC seems like a perfect option. No pressure for Keselowski to live up to the lofty standards of Jeremy Mayfield, and Haas gets to audition a young prospect. One to keep an eye at least.

• Somewhat lost in the Dale Jr-Kyle Busch-HOw to Incite an Angry Fanbase Dustop, was the mysterious behavior of Denny Hamlin. After seeing his dominant car get a flat tire, he remained on the track for several laps, despite more than ten laps left in the race. Ultimately he just stopped on the track to bring out the caution flag. He tried to explain to Dustin Long during Monday’s test at Lowe’s Motorspeedway.

  “I was trying to get to pit road. The problem was if I ran any kind of speed around the race track I was going to drag the sway bar arm off. It went into turn 3 and that’s when I totally lost the entire tire. So I stopped, trying to be able to turn it down on to pit road but I had already crossed (by) the wall (that separates the track from the pits). I didn’t want to risk tearing up the car to where we couldn’t even finish the race, so I knew I had to stop or else I was going to jeopardize even us finishing the race.

  For me, that doesn’t fly. Hamlin first lost speed while leading the race and it didn’t completely blow until at least ten lead lap cars had passed him. He had plenty of time to make it to pit road before his tire was fatal. Hamlin said he didn’t want to jeopardize tearing up his car. Staying out on the track and not running full speed posed a pretty big risk too, with cars tightly packed trying to avoid the limping #11 car.

  I was already (upset) anyway because I felt like we should have won the race. Regardless if I was running fifth, I would have done the same thing because I pride myself on not getting DNFs and if I would have ran that one lap on that flat tire … we would have been done. I had to do what I had to do regardless of whether it kind of affected someone else or not.

  This comes across as extremely selfish. There are 43 cars on the track and each driver has a responsibility to at least respect the other 42. Staying out on the track when you have a tire going flat, not running at full speed only creates danger for the others. It has nothing to do with pride in no DNF’s, staying on the lead lap or using the racetrack for wallowing. Imagine if in the future Hamlin is running in the top five, having a nice run and a car with a problem refuses to leave the track and collects Hamlin in a wreck. I’m pretty sure Hamlin would be livid, but that’s exactly the atmosphere he created on Saturday night.

  Literally adding injury to insult was Hamlin’s hip injury suffered on Sunday playing pickup basketball. I guess it’s a more macho injury than his cut hand suffered from running a foot race around his hauler last year.

• Speaking of Kyle Busch(since everyone else is), some interesting quotes from Nationwide (click here for audio and more quotes) regarding his manhood initiation with Seven Wallace.
  

  He’s a boy trying to play in a man’s sport and I don’t take those games so we are going to fight if it comes down to it. If he wants to play that kind of game, then that’s what we are going to play.

  Take notes boys, learn how to be a man. Real Men throw HANS devices at other drivers, abandon their teams while they repair your wrecked race car, and hide behind the blanket answer of “I’m a racer” to dismiss any and all racing incidents. Manly, indeed.

Junior fans, be honest. If it was anyone other than Kyle Busch, would you be so upset right now? Would Busch’s wreck with Junior in the closing laps have been such a big deal? Well, probably since it involved the biggest star in NASCAR, but it’s hardly fair to Busch. It was a racing incident plain and simple. It wasn’t any different than Tony Stewart and Kevin Harvick at Bristol earlier this year or hundreds of similar wrecks resulting from hard racing over the years.

In light of a tense situation, Busch did have one of the best quotes of the night after the race,

I don’t know why they[ the fans] were telling me I was number one, I was in second place. Clint Bowyer got the lead from me — they were all confused I guess, too many old (Dale Earnhardt) Jr. Budweisers.

• Denny Hamlin had the NASCAR equivalent of pitching a no hitter, only to cough it up on a home run in the bottom of the ninth. Actually, getting a flat tire after leading 381 of 382 laps was like watching your center fielder turn a single into an inside-the-park home run.
  

  It’s tough to say. I mean, you can’t whine about it. It wasn’t meant to be. God didn’t want me to win today, and there’s a better time for us to win, evidently. Today is just not our day.

  Hamlin had 1 green flag pass all night, which is usually a bad thing, except when there is no one else but lapped cars to pass.

• The top ten cars stayed essentially the same all night long. Part of the reason was because a lot of decent cars got caught up in an eleven car pileup. Jimmie Johnson, Kurt Busch, Matt Kenseth, Juan Pablo Montoya and others all got collected after Patrick Carpentier was sent spinning. Jamie McMurray suffered minor damage in that crash, so he went back for seconds later in the race. Somehow Jeff Burton snaked through with minor damage and went on to finish 11th. The way the track clogged so quickly reminded me of another short track Big One from the 2005 Bristol race.

• Speaking of Kenseth, he now sits in 22nd place in the standings, 204 points outside of 12th place. In 2005 he was 21st after the Richmond race, but thanks to a furious summer rally he made the Chase. The good news is Kenseth typically runs well at the next three tracks, Darlington, Charlotte and Dover. There is a lot of time left.

• What was Michael Waltrip thinking when he continued bumping Casey Mears under caution? Mears was running one lap down in 16th. There was no way Mears meant to wreck Waltrip. For the lovable image Waltrip likes to project, it’s interesting how many times a year he gets called to the NASCAR hauler.

• The top 35 fight rages on. Dave Blaney’s 18th place finish (and best run of 2008) put some pressure on 35th place Sam Hornish Jr. 32nd place David Reutimann is only 10 points ahead of Hornish, with Waltrip and Regan Smith sandwiched in between. With the unfriendly confines of Darlington up next, the positions at the back of the field could change quickly.

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